anyone tried one? is it good?
ok
lexicon omega soundcard. 8 inputs. 2 of which are XLRs with preamps, 4 balanced line inputs. see here: http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/page/shop/flypage/product_id/3634
has anyone tried it and got an opinion theyd like to share. i want to buy one, but im concerned about USB handling all those tracks (especially as i only have USB 1.1, not USB 2) and whehter its generally worth getting or not?? it seems pretty cheap over here in UK.
many thanks
collen
I use a Lexicon Omega with my laptop. Seems to work well, but it does not really have 8 (Independent) inputs. You can only use 4 at a time. Read the manual carefully. In addition, I would be cautious using any other USB devices on the machine with it. I actually picked up a USB 2.0 card Bus adapter strickly to use with the Lexicon. I realize that the lexicon is only 1.1, but thats OK.
John
hrm…is it 4 pairs of inputs? so 4 stereo ins or 8 mono ins??
my band is acoustic guitar, bass, v-kit (which will go to midi in), electric guitar and two vocals…i wanna record the lot as we go along…would the lexicon be able to do this??
Certainly has all the connectors on the back for 2x mic, 4x line, 1 stereo SPDIF. BUT, reading the manual says that using SPDIF will take over channels 1/2. The manual also stats that it only allows channels over USB (4 channels of recording and 2 of playback) simultainously. You select which ones are are used, and it looks like you’re stuck with using particular pairs.
Collen, I’d look at something else.
Yes, that the general limitation on usb 1.1 devices. 4 in/4 out @ 48khz uses full bandwidth.
what would people recommend then for my puposes? a pci card rather than usb?? i was lookin forward to the usb cos that could be semi-portable/compatible with our bass players new superfast mac…is an m-audio card my best way forward then??
Maybe firewire rather than USB, if there’s a port on the mac. Tend to be more expensive though. Maybe a MOTU Traveller, or something similar with a few mic pres on it? Depends on your outboard though (and check that it’s got Mac drivers too!). Maybe the edirol UA101 on USB2 might be suitable.
at over £700 the motu traveller is far too expensive for me. i was hoping to net something for about £200…
mac compatibility isnt absolutely necessary for me…just would be nice. bass player can get his own soundcard 
if i just wanted to record v-kit, acoustic guitar and bass in one go, the lexicon would be ok yeah? i cant really see me recoridng vocals at same time, as i’d wanna do them afterwards really to make sure theyre good. for recoridng our ‘jammin’ i can always do a submix on a mixer of acoustic guitars and vocals to one track, and for ‘proper’ recording would defo record vocals seperate…and electric guitar is likely to be added after the rhythm section is recorded anyway in most cases (due to us not having a fulltime lead guitarist)
ive been recommended by my housemate who works in a music shop to get an m-audio delta-66, but this has no preamps and still only 4 inputs…does the spdif on this take over any of the analog inputs, does anyone know? so i could on this card record drums thru spdif, then still have four inputs, (bass, acoustic guitar and two mics through seperate pre-amps) all at once???
thanks again for help!! this is proving to be a minefield!!
Delta1010lt on this page? I set it to brit pounds, but I dunno what you can get them for in the UK.
http://www.jrrshop.com/default…95a38ac
Or, the straight 1010 which is above it on the same page, has a breakout box, but lacks mic pres.
Shite, I dunno. What’s an Audiotrak Maya1010 go for over there? C-port? Presonus Firebox? FWIW, the delta 66 has 4 analog, one stereo digital pair.
Willy.
ok, i had a look around at some of the suggested options, and came across this little beauty:
Hercules 16/12 FW
now, i dont have firewire, and it seemed that if i did then i could widen my choice of soundcard quite considerably…and lo, the above soundcard has a 3 input firewire pci soundcard bundled in with it! so no extra cash needed. i can get this for £220 which seems awful cheap for 16 (!) inputs…
can anyone tell me if this will suit my needs well, (and allow me to add many more instruments if i needed), or whether i would have any problems running 16 tracks recording simultaneously on a 1.5ghz P4 with 1gb sd-ram and a 100gb 7200rpm hard-drive???
many thanks…
Well, that’s what I’ve got, and I’m a bit underwhelmed. For the money, you won’t find more inputs. Tomshardware have a review of it, Learjeff has my RMAA results up, and I’ve got a review up here somewhere.
http://www.ntrack.com/cgi-bin…ercules
Ok,
The crux of the detection issue was that the original drivers didn’t work with XP SP2, and you have to email Hercules for a fix before you install it. This thread describes my experiences:
http://www.ntrack.com/cgi-bin…ercules
I don’t know if the latest drivers off the web require SP1 or work with SP2.
Has Mac drivers too, but no update since about this time last year. I haven’t gotten all the inputs to record under n-track without glitching yet, but I haven’t recorded a gig in a long time either and are yet to try HUGE buffer sizes. Three minutes here and there for single songs seems to be pretty good, and the ASIO drivers are pretty quick too.
My basic method is to record all the bed tracks at high buffering under WDM, and then switch to low buffered ASIO for vocals or Live input guitar tracks.
Yes, you can record all the imputs at once too.
I would like to try it with other software sometime.
Willy.